How viable are schemes to give poor people making and selling ‘informal’ milk greater market access?
A4NH / AHH / Buffalo / Cattle / Consumption / Dairying / East Africa / Food Safety / Food Security / Human Health / ILRI / India / Kenya / Livelihoods / Markets / Nutrition / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Report / South Asia / Tanzania / Trade / Value Chains

How viable are schemes to give poor people making and selling ‘informal’ milk greater market access?

A new report from ILRI and IIED reviews the effectiveness of training and certification schemes designed to give small-scale ‘informal’ sellers of ‘raw’ and/or boiled or informally pasteurized milk and (in India) milk sweets greater market access in East Africa and South Asia. The report reviews such schemes in Kenya and Tanzania and in the state of Assam, in northwestern India. In all three countries, the informal sector dominates dairy marketing and trade and informal milk production and trade contribute significantly to the employment, livelihoods and nutrition of many millions of poor people. Continue reading

Food—a ‘hyper-local issue’—needs to keep MOVING, ‘from farm to fork’, says the World Bank’s Juergen Voegele
Article / CGIAR / Consumption / COVID19 / Food Security / Policy / Trade / Value Chains

Food—a ‘hyper-local issue’—needs to keep MOVING, ‘from farm to fork’, says the World Bank’s Juergen Voegele

On a recent World Bank ‘Voices’ blog, German agricultural economist Juergen Voegele, World Bank vice president for sustainable development, said that with the emptying of supermarket shelves and the sweeping travel bans being put in place to try to stem the spread of COVID-19, one might deduce that global food supplies were low. That’s not the case, he says. Continue reading

On a frugal continent of ‘economic vegetarians’, consuming more meat means longer, healthier lives—The Economist
Advocacy / Africa / Agri-Health / Animal Production / Animal Products / Asia / China / Consumption / Dairying / Environment / Food Security / Human Health / India / Intensification / Kenya / Livelihoods / Markets / News clipping / Nutrition / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Rangelands / Senegal / Trade / Value Chains

On a frugal continent of ‘economic vegetarians’, consuming more meat means longer, healthier lives—The Economist

The Economist reports that the future of food lies in Africa. And why that’s a good thing. As Africans get richer, they will eat more meat and live longer, healthier lives. Continue reading

Northern Kenya-southern Ethiopia dryland livestock traders gathered in Marsabit for better livestock trade and market links
Article / AVCD / Camels / Cattle / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / Event report / ILRI / Kenya / Knowledge and Information / LIVESTOCKCRP / Markets / Pastoralism / PIL / Pro-Poor Livestock / Rangelands / Small Ruminants / Trade

Northern Kenya-southern Ethiopia dryland livestock traders gathered in Marsabit for better livestock trade and market links

Enthusiastic traders from several counties in northern Kenya and from across the border in Ethiopia joined a livestock trade facilitation forum in Marsabit, Kenya on May 9. By close of business, participating livestock buyers and sellers signed contracts for a total of 5,373 livestock at a value of $406,774. Continue reading

Animal Products / ILRI / Livestock / Middle East / PIL / PIM / Report / Research / Somalia / Trade

Saudi livestock market requirements, implications for Somaliland

Livestock are the backbone of the Somaliland economy accounting for about 60% of the country’s gross domestic product, 70% of employment opportunities and 85% of export earnings, and about 15% of total government revenue. Despite being Somaliland’s biggest livestock export market, little is known about marketing channels, grading and pricing of Somaliland livestock in Saudi Arabia. A recent research report, sheds a light on these key issues and how they affect Somaliland exporters. Continue reading

American agricultural economist Steve Staal leads livestock policy, trade and value chain research at ILRI
Animal Production / Crop-Livestock / Farming Systems / ILRI / Kenya / Philippines / PIL / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Research / Scholarship / Trade / Value Chains

American agricultural economist Steve Staal leads livestock policy, trade and value chain research at ILRI

Steve Staal, who for the past 15 months has served the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Los Baños, the Philippines, as regional representative for East and South Asia, this month takes up leadership of ILRI’s Policy, Trade and Value Chains program and is now based in Nairobi. Continue reading

Agriculture / East Africa / Livelihoods / Livestock / Markets / PIL / PIM / Report / Small Ruminants / Somalia / Trade / Value Chains

ILRI research brief says marketing information tool has improved livestock trading in Somaliland

A new ILRI research brief shows that a livestock marketing information system (LMIS) has improved access to animal marketing information and helped increase trading in livestock in Somaliland. Continue reading

Animal Breeding / Animal Products / Article / Books and chapters / Chickens / Consumption / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Intensification / LiveGene / North America / Poultry / Trade / USA

How a ‘Chicken of Tomorrow’ breeding contest turned America’s backyard birds into a giant global industry

New Yorker cover by Tom Gauld (via Pinterest). The following fascinating recent history of the chicken in America is taken from a 2014 essay by Andrew Lawler published in Aeon (check out this online science and cultural magazine, founded in London in 2012, if you haven’t yet): Chicken of tomorrow: How a massive breeding contest turned … Continue reading

Animal Feeding / Crop residues / Crop-Livestock / FFD / ILRIComms / India / Intensification / LIVESTOCKFISH / MAIZECRP / South Asia / Trade

Underused maize stover could (should) replace popular sorghum stover as livestock feed in parts of rainfed India

Maize harvest in the village home of Jashvir Singh Tomar, in northern India, which ILRI scientists visited during a field day held as part of a workshop to develop a tool for feed technology screening and prioritization in Dehradun, India (photo credit: ILRI/Peter Ballantyne). New research by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the the International … Continue reading